Senate Ethics panel favors tighter rules on gifts

Action by 'bad apples' sparks new hearings

TALLAHASSEE — It might get harder for political candidates or political organizations use campaign cash from fundraising groups they control to pay for private jets or wining-and-dining friends.

The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee recommended Tuesday no longer allowing “gifts” to be given or received through the groups, known as “committees of continuous existence.”

So, what exactly is a gift?

“When five guys go to 101 [restaurant] and no money is raised … and they all get their dinner paid for by the CCE, that’s a gift,” said state Sen. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, mentioning a hotspot for Tallahassee politicos.

The groups came under fire from legislative leaders this year after some “bad apples” used them to fund lavish meals, travel and other personal items unrelated to the mission of the committee — political fundraising. There has been no mention of reforming electioneering communication organizations, a separate fundraising group that can also receive unlimited contributions.

Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, has called for doing away with the groups, but the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee balked at the idea, which opens up a rift with its companion committee in the House.

“The Senate’s position is that the status quo on campaign finance is a good position to take. We’re going to take a different one,” House Speaker Will Weatherford told the Orlando Sentinel.

It exemplifies the difficulty of guiding an omnibus ethics package through a Legislature that has killed several reform packages in recent years.

Each of the recommendations made by the Senate committee are hot-button issues:

■ Allowing election complaints to be filed 30 days before. (The current window is five days.)

■ Limiting lawmakers from taking a high-level university job after joining the Legislature.

■ Expanding who can initiate an ethics commission investigation.

The task of making sure an ethics bill does not fall short this year is, in part, the job of Matt Carlucci, a Jacksonville insurance salesman appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to the Florida Commission on Ethics.

Carlucci, the commission’s legislative liaison, told the Senate panel that his top priority is being able to place a lien on the property of someone who ignores fines related to not filing or making errors on a financial disclosure form. The commission wrote off nearly $800,000 in those fines last year.

“We have 37,000 filers in Florida … so if 1 or 2 percent ignore the law, it can be anywhere from 370 to 800 filers,” Carlucci said.

Committee members were sympathetic but wanted provisions allowing a grace period to go back and amend a financial disclosure form if an error was discovered.

“There are mistakes made,” said state Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine. “I bet every one of us in here today probably has made some kind of mistake on our financial disclosure, including myself.”